" IN OLD NEW ZEALAND."

Evening Post, Volume LXX, Issue 36, 11 August 1905, Page 6

" IN OLD NEW ZEALAND."

LECTURE BY MR. A. HAMILTON. There is no decline in the popularity of • the lectures delivered in the Newtown Public Library lecture-room. On Wednesday there was a full attendance on the occasion of Mr. A. Hamilton's lecture, "An Hour in Old New Zealand " Mr R. C. Harding presided, and introduced the lecturer. Mr-. Hamilton took" 'his hearers "in imagination to a 'Maori coast settlement in the North Island — period, about two hundred ..years. ago, before the advent of the white man. He described the social, order of the people, the daily routine oL ■work and recreation, their industry, neatness, and artistic skill, their labours in the field and forest, their fishing excursions, their aesthetic taste, as shown not only .in their numerous works of art but in the choice of sites for settlement and their scrupulous conservation of all the natural beautits of their spot of habitation. "Seldom, if ever," he 'said, "was a Maori known wantonly 'to destroy 'any living .tree or shrub," and even those in the immediate neighoourhood of a settlement, though available for fuel or other useful purposes, were conserved, the inhabitants preferring to go or sand their slaves considerable distances for the required material rather than mar the 'beauty of their surroundings. Everything in field, village, or house, was kept scrupulously in its appointed place and in perfect order, no refuse of any kind was allowed to offend the eye, and the admirable sanitary arrangements strongly impressed Captain Cook, "who contrasted the exquisite neatness and cleanliness ot the Maori kainga with the slovenliness and filth he had seen in European towns and cities. A warlike people, and always subject to sudden attack, the Maoris were adepts in the -art of fortification, and moat of theii time," apart from that devoted to offence or defence, was devoted to the securing of food, of which they possessed a great variety. Their buildings, canoes, and weapons, fashioned and carved with no other tools than those of stone or shell, were finely and artistically wrought, and represented an enormous expenditure of patient labour. The punctilious politeness of the old Maori was 'described, though its details were in .some respects the opposite to out own usages, as, for instance, it was the proper thing for visitors to pass through a settlement to the reception-house without taking the slightest notice of those drawn up to meet them, and their host showed respect to his guests by receiving them seated. The lecturer described tho social polity of tho people, including the potent institution of 'Tapu, on which alone, ho said, a large volume might be "written. Briefly, it was a method, supported by superstitious awe, of maintaining communal order among a wilful and headstrong people. Even the mightiest chief bowed like a child before- its terrors. Our own law protecting native ducks during the breeding-se-aeon was actually the reimposition of an old-time tapu imposed on the natives with precisely tho same object. A heartyvote of thanki was civen to Mt. 'Hamilton at the close of the lecture.